18 Procurement Case Studies & Lessons Learned

Deliver an online experience that turns first-time buyers into loyal customers. Expand into new markets and grow online sales with a scalable platform. B2B leaders across the world choose Sana Commerce Cloud to help their businesses thrive. Support the full, end-to-end customer journey with real-time data, turning your online channel into a strategic asset you can continuously optimize. Marketing Cloud Next is Salesforce's complete agentic marketing platform for the entire customer lifecycle — where humans and AI agents work together to plan, create, optimize, and orchestrate adaptive customer experiences.

Therefore, purchasing decisions must go through several people and opinions before being approved. With more stakeholders involved in the process, there are inevitably more opinions and perspectives to take into account. The primary B2B buying group typically involves between 6–10 decision makers who must reach an agreement, then attain buy-in from other organizational leaders. In this article, we’ll walk through the six stages of the B2B buying process, why it’s going through a digital transformation and how to enhance your own B2B buyer journey. B2B online sales to reach $1.8 trillion, and by 2025, Gartner predicts 80% of B2B sales interactions between buyers and suppliers will occur in digital channels. They provide insights into factors like market growth, technological advancements, and risk management, helping businesses make informed

• This includes negotiation, volume discounts, competitive bidding, and evaluating total cost of ownership.
• Recognizing a problem (often referred to as a pain point) is the first step in any B2B buying process.
• Marketing Cloud Next is Salesforce's complete agentic marketing platform for the entire customer lifecycle — where humans and AI agents work together to plan, create, optimize, and orchestrate adaptive customer experiences.
• The B2B buying process involves various steps that organizations go through when buying products or services that meet their needs.

The procurement software vendor implemented its intelligent B2b purchasing process category management (ICM) system, consolidating the outdated solutions into two centralized systems. A leading global oil and gas company faced inefficiencies, data silos, and governance issues in its procurement process due to reliance on outdated solutions, which led to delays, a lack of visibility, and an overly complex approval system.6 A leading utility company faced significant supply chain constraints that extended lead times for crucial transformers and electrical equipment to over two years.5

What Is the B2B Buying Process in 2026?

Disruptions and uncertainties require a proactive approach to risk management. More and more businesses are prioritizing sustainability and ethical considerations. A strong SRM approach helps maintain supply continuity, manage risks, foster innovation, and unlock cost savings over time. Legal teams are often involved in this phase to ensure alignment with company policies and local or international laws. Procurement professionals rely on insights from previous steps, like market research and internal data, to negotiate contracts that balance cost savings with value creation. Negotiation in B2B procurement is where significant value is created or lost.

Despite this, 48% of salespeople never make a single follow-up attempt after initial contact (Flowlu / Invesp). Sales reps spend 40% of their time just finding people to sell to, and it takes an average of 8 call attempts to reach a single decision-maker. The typical buying decision now includes 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, with that number rising for more complex or strategic purchases. The highest-performing teams run both — hybrid models generate up to 50% more revenue growth than single-channel approaches (McKinsey). For complex, high-value deals, 87% of salespeople say in-person interaction is still critical (Salesforce).

Documenting requirements before searching for providers prevents the common problem of requirements shifting mid-evaluation based on a single vendor's capabilities. A documented procurement process creates a consistent, repeatable decision framework that reduces bias, surfaces hidden costs, and protects the company from contractual risk. B2B procurement applies to software purchases, agency engagements, professional services, and technology vendor selections.

c. Focus on long-term relationships

As Kader Meroni, founder of Atlas Tea Club, says, “There’s no one-size-fits-all model for the buying process. They can hop between stages, reverse when they need extra time to make decisions, and skip over certain steps to revisit later. The vast majority of B2B buying decisions can be broken down into six stages—though buyers don’t necessarily follow the path in a linear fashion. The B2B buying process is the decision-making exercise buyers go through when purchasing from another company.